I've got a 3 seater bench seat XH ford ute and i'm planning on putting in a head unit and some 6x9 speakers. Though the standard speakers in the ute are in the dash and not in the door, and so I want to put in 6x9's but I don't want to make any holes or cut into anything in the ute as I will only have it for 5 months before I get a new car. Anyone have any suggestions as to how and where I could place the speakers without making and big holes in the ute? I don't get the ute for another month, so I was also wondering (if anyone has the same ute) if their would be enough room under that lump at the floor of the middle seat, to place the speakers in some sort of box on the lump under the dash? (I hope you guys know what I mean).

Mate Ive been facing the exact same problem. From what I know about speaker installation in an XH (which isnt a great deal), you'll find it fairly hard to put in a set of 6x9's without cutting. The most common place I have heard is behind the seats.
Im opting to go for a set of 6" splits in the doors, with the tweeters in the dash and a small amp.

Yeh, I was thinking about behind the seats, but with a bench seat i'm not too sure if their would even be enough room! It also makes it difficult that I don't actually have the ute at the moment so I can see where they might fit. Do you think their would be enough room behind the head rests if they were in a speaker box? Though even if they could fit.. I think the speaker right in your head would be annoying. I'm thinking that because I don't want to cut anything I'm going to have to buy 6x9 speaker boxes and somehow sit them somewhere, so if you could think of any places in your ute where they could fit/stay, please give us a yell.

unless you cut the back out behind the seats and create a shelf simillar to a AU type set up you dont have much hope , at one stage i had my 6x9s on the shelf behinde my head but in no box , anyway i have seen this done to an xh and it works quite well it had to 10 inch subs behind there! and to 6 inches in the to side walls behind the seats any way i love to here if you do manage to find a place for them

how did it go with the speakers on the shelf behind your head? did you find it was too loud having the speakers so close to your head? Because maybe if they were boxed and got them fixed in their so they didn't move around it could work out. It's just such a pain in the arse that I know i'm only going to have the ute for 5 months so I definatly don't want to cut into anything. I havn't got the head unit in their yet either. How do you have your's setup? Did you have any troubles with putting the head unit in etc? Any tips would be great!

I have just recently put a JVC head unit in my ute replacing the standard tape deck. I first drilled out the two Torx screws that hold the tape deck in place via the two mounts. I then unscrewed the mounts off the standard tape deck. On the side of the JVC CD player there are numerous numbered threaded holes. I then lined up the mounts relative to the JVC head unit in the same position they were for the standard tape deck. I then drilled new holes in the mounts that would line up with the numbered holes in the head unit. I then found suitable screws around home to screw it all together and replaced the torx screws with regular self-tappers.

In total it took me a good 4 hours from start to finish including soldering it all up, scavenging for screws and aligning the mounts.

hope this helps

Note: When removing the sound system surround panel after undoing the 1 screw behind the ash tray really give it a firm pull. I didn't want to break anything and was pulling lightly, It took me a good 10 minutes to work out there was nothing else holding it and I had to just use more muscle to overcome the clip.

Thanks for that, i'm most probably going to get my mate to put in the headunit speakers for me (he's a mechanic). Just out of interest, where do you have your speakers placed? what size etc? Does it sound alright etc? Any details etc would be a great help.

I got an out of date model on sale at mates rates. It cost me $300 with MP3 capability. I've never had it skip including on corrugated gravel roads. MP3s are the way to go. No need to carry as many CDs, great for Road Trips.